In honor of Martin Luther King Jr's. Day of Service, the Hudson River Maritime Museum invites community members to visit the museum for a chance to learn more about volunteer opportunities with three local organizations; Historic Clearwater Sloop, Riverkeeper, and Hudson River Maritime Museum. Each organization will highlight 2020 volunteer opportunities that are available to the public. The Volunteer Open House represents an excellent chance for community members to meet members from each organization, attend information sessions, and register as a volunteer! This program supports the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibit, Water/Ways.
 
The program will run from 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM on Monday, January 20th at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. There will be training and information sessions throughout the day. Community members are invited to explore the Water/Ways exhibit hosted in the East Gallery while on site. This program is free! No registration is required! Visit the Museum’s website www.hrmm.org/waterways for more information.

The Hudson River Maritime Museum will host the Water/Ways exhibition from January 11 to February 23, 2020. The museum’s open hours will be extended from four days a week to seven days a week during this exhibition, in order to give all Hudson Valley residents a chance to see it. The Hudson River Maritime Museum is the only Hudson Valley location where this exhibition will be shown.
 
“We were so pleased to be one of only six museums in the state selected to host this amazing exhibit and we are excited to offer a number of public programs, including lectures, family programs, and community forums, for Hudson Valley residents to explore,” said Lisa Cline, Executive Director of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
 
Water/Ways explores the endless motion of the water cycle, water’s effect on landscape, settlement and migration, and its impact on culture and spirituality. It looks at how political and economic planning have long been affected by access to water and control of water resources. Human creativity and resourcefulness provide new ways of protecting water resources and renewing respect for the natural environment.

For the Hudson River Maritime Museum, Water/Ways serves as an opportunity to discuss not only the impact of the Hudson River on local and national society, but also to encourage members of the public to examine their own relationships to water: where it comes from, how they use it, and how their lives are or can be impacted by pollution and climate change.
 
“The Hudson River has long played an outsized role in American history,” said Sarah Wassberg Johnson, Director of Education at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. “Water/Ways allows us to look at our relationships to the Hudson and its tributaries from both historical and modern perspectives and fits in perfectly with our other exhibits.”
 
Members of the public are invited to attend a special Water/Ways Opening Reception on Saturday, January 11, 2020 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is $10.00 per person and free for Hudson River Maritime Museum members. Registration for the Opening Reception is available at www.hrmm.org/waterways.
 
Water/Ways is part of the Smithsonian’s Think Water Initiative to raise awareness of water as a critical resource for life through exhibitions, educational resources and public programs. Inaugural funding for the New York State tour was provided by the Smithsonian Institution, Hadley Exhibits, Inc., the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, and the New York State Canal Corporation.
 
Water/Ways was inspired by an exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org), and the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul (www.smm.org), in collaboration with Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland; The Field Museum, Chicago; Instituto Sangari, Sao Paulo, Brazil; National Museum of Australia, Canberra; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada; San Diego Natural History Museum; and Science Centre Singapore with PUB Singapore.
 
The exhibition is part of Museum on Main Street, a unique collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), state humanities councils and museum associations across the nation, and local host institutions. To learn more about Water/Ways and other Museum on Main Street exhibitions, visit www.museumonmainstreet.org. The public can participate in the conversation on social media at #thinkWater.

More information about these programs, including registration, is available at www.hrmm.org/waterways.